New Grant Programs Relating to Women in Higher Education

The University of Pennsylvania received a five-year, $7.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to establish the Penn Center for Innovation in Personalized Breast Cancer Screening. Katrina Armstrong, chief of the division of internal medicine at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, and her team will use clinical, genomic, and imaging information to guide the use of novel personalized breast cancer screening strategies that are aimed at reducing false positive diagnoses.

Ann Stuart, chancellor of Texas Woman’ University in Denton, had donated $120,000 to the university to establish the Ann Stuart Fund to underwite the Chancellor’s Alumni Excellence Award. The fund will be used to bring the annual award winner to campus to share his or her experiences with the campus community. The program will be funded through 2032.

Susan Krum, assistant professor for the UCLA Health Center, received a $450,000 grant from Susan G. Komen for the Cure for a study to determine if a chemical commonly found in plastic bottles and food packaging is a factor in the increased risk of breast cancer. The chemical, bisphenol A, has been linked to cancer in animal studies. Dr. Krum’s research will investigate whether contact with the chemical stimulates breast cancer tumor growth.

Dr. Krum is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and earned a Ph.D. at UCLA.